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| Louise Haigh is said to have authorised the recent emergency alert, or was she simply hung out to dry on account of the backlash? |
It was one of the first major mis-steps of the Burnham regime - the disastrous decision to utilise the emergency alert system to issue a nationwide alert over the threat of potential wildfires. Mobile phones across the country began blaring on the evening of Friday 14 August as the UK government warned the sheeple against going out into the dry grass and lighting barbecues and fireworks. This was not an 'emergency', it was government overreach and it backfired spectacularly.
At BTLP, there is no such thing as a government alert on any phone belonging to either of us, as we strongly opposed this system from the outset. We saw that it was clearly designed to expand the state into the private spaces of ordinary citizens in preparation for their planned digital social credit system. It was highly unlikely to serve any life saving purpose, in fact in certain circumstances it could actually cost lives by alerting bad actors to the presence of hidden targets. For instance, in acts of terror we were previously told to run, hide, fight - in that order - how are people supposed to remain successfully hidden when their phone begins blaring? Then there is the most publicised drawback that claims domestic abuse victims can be at risk if hidden phones suddenly begin blaring and draw the ire of their abusers. Of course, neither of these scenarios has reportedly cost any lives three years since the system was officially launched, but likewise no lives have been saved either!
At the time of our initial opposition, we were criticised by a fair few followers, many of whom appeared to be still wound up too tight from the scamdemic. The fact it was a Tory government that rolled out the alert system added fuel to the backlash. Perhaps things would have been a wee bit different if it had been a Labour government rolling it out, but when it comes to state overreach we were not going to give the Tories a free pass.
Various tests of the system began in 2023, at which point we advised people to either opt out in their phone settings or simply switch off their phones as the test was being carried out. We were accused of overreacting - 'it's just a text message' - while others accused us of having tin foil wrapped around our heads.
National test alerts asides, most people in the UK had never received an emergency alert on their phone, with its only active use being targeted to specific areas or regions. One 'emergency' related to an undetonated WWII bomb in Plymouth (that never detonated), while its only other uses related to three storm warnings, none of which can be proven to have had any impact whatsoever. Most people tend to take notice of weather forecasts and word of mouth, and have survived their entire lives on this basis.
Then everything changed on August 14. For the first time a national emergency alert was sent out - for the threat of wildfires, as opposed to an actual imminent wildfire bearing down on inhabited areas. The trigger for the decision appeared to be a series of fires that struck the Midlands the previous day. These fires destroyed several properties, but everyone involved was successfully evacuated without an emergency alert on their phones. Perhaps local people would have forgiven the government for the imposition of an emergency alert in such circumstances, but a national alert over potential wildfires came 24 hours after their houses had already burned to the ground.
The decision to issue a national alert was catastrophic to the cause of the nanny state. According to The Daily Telegraph, a huge spike in internet users searching for how to disable the alerts lingered long after the wildfire alert was sent out. Likewise, an emoji poll we conducted on Facebook garnered an overwhelmingly negative response to the emergency alert system - contrasting with the backlash we received three years ago.
68 per cent of respondents indicated they had already opted out prior to the wildfire alert, with 29 per cent saying they would now consider doing so. Just three per cent of the 115 respondents wanted to persevere with the alerts. No-one told us to wrap our heads in tinfoil.
Public recognition of government overreach and the planned digital social credit system has increased exponentially in recent years and we will continue to do our bit in raising awareness. Our freedom depends on it.
